I love Michigan and all, but there are a ton of assholes in our fan base. I really doubt its Ohio State or Michigan State fans posing as Michigan fans that are tweeting at Harris. We have enough idiots in our own fan base to do this to ourselves.

...I don't plan on reading the whole thing, to see if the following point is already addressed.

But isn't one thing about Twitter, that offending Tweets like the ones at issue in the case of Damien Harris, are searchable? And can be collected, and re-posted elsewhere? To essentially name and shame the offenders?

I'd be all for that. Identify the offenders by name. Expose them as much as possible.

Yes, but other fanbases have intelligent enough idiots to pose as Michigan fans as well. It's certainly a combination of both, but my guess would be the worst of them are from our rival fans.

Think about it. How is one way that an average fan can impact recruitment? By being a complete dick and posing as fan of another team. If anyone thinks this theory is tin hat, I have a bunch of bad news about the dedication to idiocy of college football fans...

If you've followed this debate long enough (and I have) you'd know there are plenty fans of this university that tweet players. Now I'm not saying you're wrong because honestly, who knows. What is certain, though, is that plenty of people on this very site have admitted to tweeting recruits in the past.

Most of this came to light before it (rightfully so) became so taboo here, but I remeber many posters defending the practice of tweeting recruits. Let's face it, if someone finds nothing wrong with tweeting 18 year old kids than they probably find nothing wrong with berating them on twitter for something they don't agree with.

I find it absolutely disgusting personally. I can't imagine a more perverse way to watse my time than to follow what 18 year olds say on twitter, let alone tweet them back. Personally I hate twitter and what it has done to society. Before, people used to think about what they said and were held accountable for their contributions to conversations. Most people would use a degree of tact and consideration when communicating with someone because they were known to the people they were communicating with and could easily be called to task for using bad form. Not only that, but many people would never dream of actually saying the things they post on things like twitter to the person if they were face to face.

I just don't know anymore. Don't people have better things to do that sit on things like twitter and follow ing what other people are doing or tweeting people they don't even know? Here's an idea: Go out and get your own life and stop following what other people are doing.

I don't use twitter, but I feel like even if I did follow recruits, the first time they mentioned their girlfriend or that they were hanging out at the mall or something I would feel like a giant freakin' weirdo and dissolve my account immediately.

If you follow recruits and are more than 3 years older than they are, you have something wrong with you. There's no counter-argument to that statement, it's just fact.

what age does a person have to be before it is no longer peverse to converse with them over the internet? i like how you guy's have added an extra bit of shame on to this to prevent people from tweeting recruits by calling them perverts if they do.

Its unfortunate, but every fan base has these lunatics. They always have and always will. Its just unfortunate that modern technology has provided these idiots a forum where their opinion can make it directly to an individual. In the past, these people would have been relagated to the fringe of society. Thanks to twitter, people in their mom's basement around the world now have opinions which we are forced to be subjected to. Unfortunately for Damien as well, the 99.99% of Michigan fans who understand he's 17, most of us have day jobs and generally have more important things to worry about. So the .0001% seems a lot bigger when viewed through just the twitter spectrum.

It can't be stopped. It's the age we live in. Majority are probably fake UM fan accounts set up by rivals. UM bloggers and recruiting experts can tell people to stop doing it until they're blue in the face, it won't happen.

For sure. Does he think it would be any different if he decommited from another school? From 'Bama for example? Fans that do that are jackasses, but he would get the same reaction from any other school.

You're bordering on the elitist "Walmart" paradigm our friends to the West love to espouse. Plenty of douchebags go to Michigan, and plenty of Michigan fans who went to school elsewhere are really great people.

I know from my own experience that people I lived with and hung out with at UofM are out there doing real things with their lives. I can't think of person I knew in school who would have the time follow a kid on twitter, much less give a fuck if he wants to come to our football team or not.

I like to think that the losers following kids on twitter and/or living and dieing with recruiting are much more likely to be michigan fans who never attended the school. NTTIAWT

I didn't go to UM, but I can make the same statement. Most of the guys who I went to college with are successful and are "doing things." I don't tweet at recruits (I don't have twitter, in fact) and I'm a fairly level headed fan. While I'm sure that it helps in many ways to go to UM, many of us are UM fans and are doing just fine without it. There are lunatics and "morans" everywhere, and I hope Damien is getting good guidance in regards to dealing with and ignoring them.

And (as anyone who watches the board can tell you)I am a walking talking collection of faults. Thankfully tweeting recruits isn't one of them. But following recruits on twitter doesn't take any more time than posting on a blog. Frankly, this entire line of discussion is doing nothing but reinforcing negative stereotypes about us, so I'm going to let this go.

I think he was just implying that UM students and grads are generally smart people and much less likely to make stupid decisions such as attacking a recruit on twitter. You would be lying to yourself if you think people that have attended Michigan are more than just a small fraction of the people hasslng recruits.

I'm not trying to sound condescending or offensive, but most of the bad apples of our fanbase are people not likely affilitated with the university outside of athletics. However, the overwhelming majority of these fans are still intelligent and rational individuals (as evidenced by the quality of discussion of this site).

1) It's true that our 'brand' is so strong our shit sells at Wal-Mart to fans that have never even been to Ann Arbor

2) They have many fans that compare to 'Walmart' fans that DID actually go to State

3) Their brand (although improving) still sucks and they don't have the national reach that Michigan does.

Obviously there are a lot of great fans of the school that didn't get their degree from it. But it's not a 'Michigan' problem we see on the twitters, as I said. It's a problem created by a brand so strong that less intelligent people latch on to it, and take ridiculous stances when it comes to 'defending' 'their' school (e.g., Michigan, Alabama, Kentucky, etc.). And by definition, any person attacking a kid on twitter is an idiot / less intelligent.

Yes he is 17, but I also believe that he's an intelligent person who is smart enough to realize that crazies are in every fan base, that they aren't representative of the Michigan program, and that they have absolutely no bearing on what his academic or athletic career would be here at Michigan. Obviously I could be wrong, but this feels a whole lot like a scapegoat.

first, he's probably 16 since he's a 2015 recruit. second, the fact that there are dumb fans in every fanbase doesn't justify those dumb fans tweeting dumb stuff at recruits. just stop; you're siding with people who are making a 16 year old kid feel uncomfortable via the internet.

What are you talking about? I'm not "siding" with anyone. In fact, I think those people should be ashamed of themselves. I'm just making a general comment about the level of interest of someone who would be dissuaded from attending a school based on twitter.

Welcome to blogging. And it's like not there is zero circumstantial evidence to support the notion that maybe he's just not that into Michigan. Do you really believe this lifelong Michigan fan decomitted because we lost the OC of an 86th ranked offense and replaced him with a guy whose offense was top ten FEI both years at Alabama? Do you know the percentage of kids who recommit to schools that they previously decomitted from? Hint: It's very low.

Nobody's saying that his decommitment is a good thing, or a positive sign, or anything like that. Obviously he's exploring his options (quite possibly with his h.s. coach in his ear due to Borges getting canned). Michigan's situation is precarious, to say the least. We all get that.

But it's quite a leap to go from that to declare "I don't think he's that interested in Michigan". A Bob Beamon type leap.

To say they have more assholes than us at a time like this is splitting hairs. We are looking at 0.00000001% of the fan base that is stupid enough to take it out on any recruit that takes a moment to step back just to make sure. Unfortunately there are enough to go around for all schools.

High profile recruits should set up two accounts. One private and one just for recruiting news. There are too many football-obsessed idiots in the world to avoid encountering some of them. Regardless of whether these are real Michigan fans or rival trolls, they aren't going to go away.

EDIT: Also, NOBODY should blame him for disliking the abuse even if it is "relatively" minor compared to other fanbases. These are high school kids. Adults have trouble dealing with outsider crap, let alone kids who aren't even old enough to sign a legally binding contract.

Some recruits do have private accounts, and although I'm not twitter saavy I believe that would solve a lot of these problems. Almost all high-school kids are on twitter these days, so they should be able to have private accounts and not be harassed.

There's always idiots out there. 99% of fans could be awesome...but the 1 tweet, he may or may not receive could push him away. Our chances are slim that idiot does not appear. Also, who's to say that other schools aren't being asshats and tweeting michigan hate to him?

Honestly, I think he's looking for a way out of a decision he made wayyyy to soon...to a coach on a hot seat.

I'm not holding my breath for him to recommit. Hopefully he does but honestly Michigan will get a more than capable back with that time rolls around...in 13 freaking months! Chill.

Because you expressed that more eloquently than I could...But then you threw out that "hot seat" bit...Which...If you're referring to Hoke, he may indeed be a bad season from "the hot seat" but I'd probably point out that that applies to about 90% of coaches in major college football.

It's like any other tool in that it can be used for good or ill based on the user. I personally think social media technology can be very useful and positive though ultimately this depends on who is using the medium. This negatively harrassing recruits is obviously one of the darker sides of social media and at the end of the day the world would be a better place if people on the Internet treated others as they would be treated.

I know it's possible but I wouldn't be surprised if it is games by other schools. I remember reading somewhere on here that Kentucky is very active. I would hope someone talks to him and his coach about it.

Every school does have idiots, grads and fans, but you have to realize it's relatively few compared to the true fans.

I wish these kids would keep their twitter accounts private and only add real friends. I think they like the attention initially then get fed up with it. It's only going to get worse now that he's opened up the recruiting.

If you set your account private, you have to give people permission to follow you. Also, only the people you have approved can see your tweets. People who you haven't approved can tweet at you, but as you guessed their tweets won't show up in your feed. Plus your tweets cannot be retweeted.

It's not a reflection of what you perceive Michigan to be. The reality is that every fanbase, Michigan included, has its share of maroons, morans, and knuckleheads, and platforms like Twitter give them a voice to share their opinions with the world.

That doesn't make it objectively valuable nor does it mean the positives outweigh the negatives. It's pretty much a medium for passive-aggressive slapfighting, trash-talking, and gossiping. It's a wealth of misinformation with no unique purpose, as far as I can tell. The world doesn't need to know what you did between getting out of the shower and heading to work.

I use it almost exclusively as a means to stay aware of current events and to make sure that I don't miss content on sites I follow. But I guess staying informed in real time and ensuring I'm never bored on the Internet has no objective value.

You don't have to tweet with your twitter account and you're not forced to follow any account you deem unworthy. Perhaps the twitter bubble you created for yourself was composed mostly of petty morons.

I'm not criticizing Harris because certainly kids are free to change there minds, but it really looks like he's just throwing out every possible reason for moving away from us other than the real one: He just doesn't believe this is a winning program right now. I seriously doubt the firing of a bad OC who was here for three seaons or a few offensive twitter responses are behind any current or future decisions to eliminate Michigan.

and his family knows that Borges is a grown man who will change jobs. If that is truly the reason than fine but should your friendship affect what's best for your child? if Michigan is not what's best for Harris simply because Borges was fired and he was a friend of the family, thats the wrong life lessons to teach your child

Herein lies the gray area of being a recruiting reporter. TomVH is somewhat acting as a mouthpiece for the Michigan fan base, but he (and others) regularly retweets and tweets at recruits publicly, which gives fans more and more of a relationship and access to the players' Twitter accounts. Personally, I wouldn't know any of these kids' Twitter handles or even know if they have a Twitter account except TomVH, Ace, Steve Lorenz, etc. retweet them all the time.

I realize that TomVH is just repeating what a coach said, and therefore, he's "reporting." But if you're part of the reason that kids' Twitter handles get spread around the internet so much and so quickly, I don't know how much room you have to complain.

Blame it on a combination of laziness and people constantly being in a rush to do things these days. It's so much faster and easier to simply retweet something than to take the time to refashion it into a tweet that quotes the recruit, includes his name, and doesn't include his Twitter handle.

There's also the competition aspect. If you do a retweet, you might be the first person to report the news to the masses. If you take the time to report it in quotes, you will likely be "scooped."

but whether it does or doesn't... what a bunch of losers. We're all frustrated, but grow a pair. he's a kid. you can't be so surprised.. and you can't just go attack the guy for being a kid and not having his entire future mapped out yet.

I totally get the frustration.. but man, please haul some of these nutjobs away in straightjackets. who does this stuff?

Yup this is why if my son ever grows up to be a division 1 recruit(highly unlikely I know), we are having a long conversation about his social media accounts and what the governing rules will be. There is never a reason to ever tweet at a high school kid, unless you are a high school kid with a personal relationship. This whole situation is ridiculous and sad.

Exactly!! I'm a high school coach, I'm sure that all of my athletes have twitter and facebook accounts. I have absolutely no connection to any of them. The ones that have graduated are allowed to add me, but even then I keep an eye on the interactions between us, so as to prevent any conversation with high school students from taking place.

seriously its pathetic....dont care if youre 16 yrs old or 50 yrs old, PLEASE find something better to do than stalk kids / recruits on internet....if youre 16 go try to find some trim, if youre 50 go back to work, just stop talking to kids on internet. its creepy. harris would be great to have in maize and blue and it sucks to lose out on 2 supremely talented athletes in same class but hoke and his staff deserve it at this point after the season they turned in. while i think um will field some solid OLs in future, the rushing performances this past season should force top RBs to look around. must really wanna go blue to pick 27 for 27 and negative rushing games over osus top rushing attack. leave the kid alone. im sure most on here have enough maturity to avoid twitter all together but for the few creeps - please consider your situation if you were the top RB prospect in nation, rather than twisted um fan with too much time on your hands and please stop the tweeting....you might feel anonymous or somewhat detached while tweeting recruits like that but youre still jerkoffs

It is sad, really. I would bet it is probably mostly real U of M fans sending nasty tweets and then a handful of posers sending even nastier ones... Nothing that can be done about it outside of the recruits themselves realizing that it is a nasty part of EVERY major program and to allow it to roll off of their shoulders. Sadly most 17 year olds are not mature enough to do that yet.. Heck, 25 year old Richard Sherman probably isn't even mature enough to do that! Zing.

This is extremely irritating. While it could easily be rival fans, there are enough jerks here at mgoblog and mlive, etc., that I can easily believe this is Michigan fans.

I don't have Twitter now, and don't plan to start anytime soon. Reading junk like this just makes me want to unplug. This is ridiculous and wrong.

I really wish there was a way to "out" idiots who do this. I have a very low tolerance for that kind of behavior. I thought it was great when some Ohio fans were outed for their lunancy (iirc, someone who was photographed with recruits last year at Ohio. And the immortal "poop in the bathroom" youtube.) I was glad to see the jerk from Alabama prosecuted for poisoning trees. The Internet in general (as well as twitter) really feeds a lack of accountability. Someone who does anything like this should be publicly chastised.

This is why I love when Deadspin and Jezebel et al publicly shame people who pull this shit and worse on social media. That's really the only way to hold someone accountable...show the world that you're an asshole.

I hate the influence social media likely has on recruits. In addition to the crazy Michigan fans, rival fan bases tweet terrible, terrible things to UM recruits. For example, a few months ago Devin Booker tweeted a picture of MBB practice, and reading his replies from a variety of different fan bases was like attending a Michigan roast. And maybe it's just my perception, but it seems like Michigan is hated by more schools than most.

The only thing as ridiculous and annoying as fans tweeting nasty comments at recruits is the constant mollycoddling from the very posters and reporters who contribute to the exposure of these high schoolers in the first place. How many times are we going to witness this pattern before people stop being shocked and outraged?

1. Awesome recruit commits.

2. Awesome recruit decommits.

3. A select few morons tweet bad things.

4. Fans and bloggers flip out.

This is the way it works, and a big reason is because people crave up-to-the-minute information about every aspect of these kids lives. If you're serious about preventing this, stop reporting and commenting on these players and petition the NCAA to forbid offers until junior year while allowing an early sigining period to lock in commitments. And for the love of God, please stop this "think of the children!" attitude. You care about Harris because he's damn good at football. If this kid were a walk-on, it doesn't even make the board.

than people that complain about the world's problems are the people that say "It's been this way for a long time. I've learned to deal with it; why haven't you?" in response to said people. And that doesn't even include the Straw Man about being selfish rather than morally sound.

The baseline rule is that it's very creepy for a grown-ass man (or woman) to be tweeting at a kid whom he doesn't know and isn't related to. The fact that this isn't obvious to some people is unsettling, to say the least.

What's the point of bashing this kid!? What is being accomplished? Honestly, the only thing it does is make you look bad! And make a 16 year old kid feel bad. He had a relationship with the former offensive coordinator and now that person no longer works there. Commitments by kids who are sophmores need to be taken with a grain of salt because this is what happens. Things in life happen and circumstances change so you need to make the best decisions that benefit you and your family, not some fan! I hope he ultimately ends up at Michigan but lay off the kid, because that's what he is, a kid, who happens to be really good at football!

Wow I would have thought this was obvious. Can't believe people would continue to harass these young kids, especially when they know it's only going to hurt Michigan more. Hopefully Harris knows these few dumbasses don't represent the whole fan base

Let me start by saying what people are saying to him sucks to see and it's horrible that people have to be reminded, but can the luddites please stop with the "this is why I don't have a Twitter" comments on this blog? Nobody cares that you don't have Twitter, and I'm not entirely sure why you having or not having Twitter has anything to do with this.

I have Twitter. I've never sent recruits nasty messages. I've never received hateful messages from strangers because I am not a high-profile athlete. Unless you are someone in the public eye, I don't see why something like this has anything to do with you having or not having Twitter. It's an otherwise useful form of media that can be abused by a relative minority of users.

Somebody should ask TomVH to tell Damian that we, the collective Michigan fan base, have as much control over the tweets from the lunatic fringe of the fan base as we do over his decision to de-committ.

Anybody who would tweet negative crap to a High School Junior is not going to be influenced in the least by the admonishment of his coach I assure you.

I don't know if he is comfortable doing it but it would be nice for him to explain that the avid fans here would never do this. I'd hate to miss out on a quality young man based on misconceptions about the fan base.

The thing that pisses me off about this is that it could very well be fans from other schools under dummy accounts just trying to get under the kid's skin.

I just hope these kids are smart enough to realize that EVERY school/team/etc has assholes that don't speak for the entire fanbase.

Some of these kids get so gassed from random fans on social media blowing smoke up their ass when they commit, they don't realize its a flipside to that. And I'm not talking about Harris there, but just in general. They would be better suited just making their accounts private...

I went to see what who said what. One jackass said he was getting paid. Come on dude. That's really happening. I'd be pissed and appalled if I was Damien as well.

One thing I did see is a ton of Michigan players supporting him. That can only help down the line if they keep in good contact with him. Playing football is a brotherhood. If he has 10-15 very good friends on the team, that will only help him with his decision.

But see then all the fans can't follow them, and the bloggers can't keep us informed of every breaking news story regarding their recruitment. We can't have that. Also, the recruits wouldn't get the same massive amounts of positive publicity and hype. They can't have that.

Listen. Damien can do whatever he pleases. My god not all 5 star recruits come to a program and do great. Everyone tends to forget Mike Hart was a 3 star, and look what he did. Damien is a big time recruit who knows that and is playing the I want attention card. All we are doing is fueling the fire. If he doesn't come back to us then who gives a shit? There are plenty of other HBs in the 2015 class. Everything will be fine.

If recruits really care what a couple fans say on Twitter they can do a couple things. Delete your Twitter or get thicker skin. Every fan base has this, I don't see how a recruit can really care what a few fans say.

I don't know how many times this needs to be said. The Michigan compliance department constantly reminds people to not have any knowingly contact with recruits whatsoever, but there are still morons who do it. Let the coaches do the recruiting because it is highly likely that when fans do it, it only hinders the process. The coaches know what they're doing.

It's like my dad used to say, there's no arguing with stupid. The type of idiots who insult players on twitter/Facebook/whatever, aren't going to listen to reason. It's unfortunate that people like that might hurt our chances to land Harris, but there are morons in every fan base, ours included

1. If you don't want people that you don't know tweeting you then make your account private, it's no different than Facebook.

2. I bet most of those 'fans' are really Ohio State fans

3. If you choose a school based on what people tweet you then I don't know what to say...other than see ya! Choose a school for the right reasons, not stupid ones.

So far from what I can gather from Damien's decommitment is that he is upset that Al Borges, who is more inept at his job than anyone else in his profession, was fired. And that people were tweeting him giving him a hard time.

People razzing you on twitter is not the end of the world, just block them or ignore them. Don't call out an entire fanbase.

Here is some advice: just follow people who follow recruiting (Steve from 247, TomVH, Sam Webb). They will tell you everything you need to know. If a kid tweets something of merit, they will retweet it.

Maybe it's because I deal with teenagers on a daily basis, but following the thought progressions and digital interactions is something I tend to drift away from.

That's what I do. I don't follow a single player or recruit. Most of the news I'm interested in is posted by Sam Webb, TomVH, etc. The truth is that 99.9% of what any high schooler says on Twitter is useless to the general public - eating habits, their favorite music, etc. It's a waste of time to scroll through that stuff.

Yet another reminder of why recruiting is basically the worst. The students themselves need to cool it on making the process so public, the parents need to curb their kids' engagement with fanbases, the coaches need to stop trying to one-up one another on the recruiting trail, and fanbases need to back the hell off and let these kids make an informed decision.

In this case, I simply don't understand the mindset of someone who follows a high school kid they don't know on Twitter, merely because there's a chance said kid could go to said fan's favorite university. Much less a fan that would try to talk to a kid on Twitter.

I am a teacher and I was just working with a 16-year-old who suffers from anxiety, and I thought about this other 16-year-old kid with ridiculous ability. I just don't know how most adults could deal with this stuff. Yes, he's blessed with amazing talent and yes, he's given all these opportunities, but it doesn't make it easy, and it certainly doesn't give justification for anonymous pussies to bash this kid.

I will not dispute that there is a possibility of people out there doing that because it is probably true, but I am NOT going to act like there are not Michigan fans out there that are not dumbasses who wouldn't do something like this. I feel there needs to be a campaign created "don't follow teenagers on Twitter" it makes people look like creeps.

This is one reason I have never created a Twitter account. If it is something I'm interested in I'll probably see it here on the board. I find it weird that grown ass men follow teenagers. There are people out there that get paid to do that. Just let them do their jobs and leave the kids alone. The whole thing is embarrassing.

Having a private account defeats one of the main appeals of tweeting—having your tweets retweeted and see them go out to an audience beyond your followers. If you have a private account, your tweets cannot be retweeted.

That being said, why should someone being harassed have to do something rather than getting the people who are doing the harassing to stop?

To me, the bigger issue is that certain people simply should stop following recruiting—they can't handle it. If you are tweeting a recruit and attacking them for a decision they've made, then you're taking recruiting too seriously and should stop following it. If a player decommitting from your school or not choosing your school upsets you, then you should stop following recruiting. You can't handle it.

I'd say no one should should tweet anything negative to a recruit. What I see is a bunch of half wits tweeting crap to recruits who should shut up. If you wouldn't say it to someone's face then don't tweet it. Don't get courage from hiding you face.

Seriously, the cons far out weigh the pros of being an athlete or another type of public figure on twitter. When you have millions of people who are fans, you don't think 100 or so are mentally unstable enough to at least send a negative tweet or go even further. It's the other side of the coin for those hat picking ceremony crap.

Sending out a message to sane people doesn't change what the lunatic fringe is going to do

Fans of team > fans who show passing interest in team's recruiting, maybe reading about commitments in the sports section > fans with avid enough interest in team's recruiting to use online resources like Rivals and Scout > fans who follow recruiting closely enough to follow recruits on Twitter > fans who will actually tweet recruits > fans who will tweet them with negative commentary in reaction to bad news.

I know he's just a kid, but I hope he at least has that perspective.

However, I'm definitely not saying these asshole "fans" are in any way, shape, or form NOT the ones who are the guilty party here.

No, but I do think it's probably bad form to be shaming the kid for having a Twitter account, or presuming to second guess his motives. There's a good chance he may not read MGoBlog, but it's been well established that MANY RECRUITS DO.

So instead of telling them what they should or shouldn't be doing, let's just say 'Good luck to the dude, hope he comes back here eventually' and *leave it at that* Doing anything remotely critical (like, saying the kids need to grow thicker skins, as some here have said) does absolutely nothing to help M's cause.

* Also, let's not kid ourselves - there are plenty of shitbags in our fanbase who are neg-tweeting Harris and other decommits. The fact that we have less shitbag fans than OSU doesn't mean we have zero of them ourselves.

It blows my mind that people would actually take time out of their day to vent their frustration to a recruit on twitter. I get that they are angry, but have some perspective here. I refuse to follow recruits on twitter, mainly because if you actually look at their account it's just nonsense 99% of the time. I don't fault people who do follow them simply for updates on their recruitment. I don't fault people for tweeting something like "Best of luck, hope you make the right decision for your family, Go Blue" or some version of that.

I just took a look at some of the things "Michigan fans" are saying to him, and while most tweets aren't vulgar they are certainly insulting. One accuses him of getting paid to decommit. Another accuses him of not wanting to be a backup at Michigan, etc...The same guy who claimed Harris was getting paid also claimed he's a season ticket holder. I wish I could execute these people.

If the tweets of a 40 year old loser that has nothing better to do that talk at a high school kid can influence said high school kid, is that someone we really want? (Come on, just skip one class, smoke one joint, get one free tattoo. Etc.)

Don't tweet recruits, but Damien and his coach need to realize that EVERY fan base had these types. It doesn't matter where he commits to, it's bound to happen with all of the social media sites. For him to let it have that much of an effect on his recruiting is somewhat disappointing.

As a relatively old man around here, I want to make an ignorant statement about the Twitters, but I think it may be important nonetheless. First, I’ve never done a tweet. Second, I don’t even really know why people think they can say anything in such a short burst of letters. Third, relevant to Michigan, wouldn’t it be good for Michigan fans to tweet positive things about recruits to help offset all the jerks saying negative stuff? If everyone refrains from saying positive stuff, and the haterz keep saying negative stuff, it makes us look even worse. I like to post positive stuff on this board about recruits who select other schools because I figure they may read our stuff. Lets respect them by saying we appreciate their interest in UM, even if we were only second best in their final decision. Just curious, anyone think we should not say positive stuff about recruits here?

Of ridiculous on both fronts, people shouldn't be tweeting recruits but if it's that big of a problem for the recruits, delete your twitter, it's pretty easy. It's the internet, unfortunately people can do what they want. If you don't want to be high profile, then get off twitter.